XXVII. Adown the cliffs she scrambles, XXVIII. She treads the briny sea-weed, XXIX. And now she stands before him, XXX. Pleased was the gallant Conrad XXXI. Upon the sandy sea-beach, XXXII. And stooping down so fondly XXXIII. From out her dreamy slumbers XXXIV. "How strange this happy meeting: Yet doomed so short to be: Farewell,- -In storm and sunshine, Dear Conrad, think of me." XXXV. Forth o'er the maiden's eye-balls A stifled groan she uttered, XXXVI. Upon the sandy sea-beach, While on her face the moonbeams bright, XXXVII. This is the tale of Nina, Where birds of sea-dipt plumage FREUND'S CLASSICS. Q. HORATII FLACCI OPERA. Edited by Dr William Freund, author of "Latin Lexicon," &c., and John Carmichael, M.A., one of the Classical Masters of the High School of Edinburgh. T. Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh, London, and New York, 1857. THE delay that has occurred in the publication of Freund's Classics is accounted for in the able preface which introduces this, the second, volume of the series. It has been deemed expedient to remodel the plan on which that series was originally projected. Instead of a bare text detached from its notes and commentaries, each volume of the set will in future comprise a separate author with all the matter necessary for his complete elucidation : "It is my purpose," says Dr Freund, "to lend the student all those aids by which he may be enabled to comprehend and appreciate the classical authors thoroughly, as the pillars and representatives of the past; so that when Cicero speaks he may imagine himself to be standing before the rostra in the Roman forum; or when Horace sings, that he may transport himself in thought to the shades of Sabinum or to the cascades of Tibur; that he may himself live over again with Livy through the dark era of legends, as well as that which was brightened by the mighty deeds of real heroes;-in a word, that the various authors may not only themselves become to the student living witnesses of ancient times, but may even set the past before him with such vivid reality, that he may for the time suppose himself also to be a personal observer of the scenes or events described or recorded by the old annalists and poets. With the view of exhibiting a livelier representation of the subject-matter, the lives of the authors, arguments or summaries of their successive writings; excursus illustrative of antiquities, history, and geography; and engravings of classical objects have been carefully prepared for this series, and the best authorities consulted, such as W. A. Becker, Marquardt, Bernhardy, Boeckh, Grote, Hermann, O. Muller, Niebuhr, Welcker, &c. With such appliances as these, the student can have no difficulty in bringing the author personally before his intellectual eye, and will soon find himself at home in any district of antiquity to which his attention may be invited." There can be no doubt that the plan, as thus recast, is infinitely superior to that which it replaces; while for school purposes it is the only one that can ever be made really and practically useful. The results of experience, it must be remembered, are all in its favour. The school classics that now enjoy the widest circulation, all profess to be constructed on these principles, and the degrees of excellence attained by each vary with the care and labour bestowed in reducing these principles to prac. tice. The editors of the Horace now before us have, therefore, done wisely in falling in with the plan commonly followed in books of the same class and with a similar end in view. The special claims of their work to acceptance will be found to rest mainly on the superior skill with which they have used the same appliances as other labourers in the same field. No school-classic that has issued from the Scottish press for many years, combines in so eminent a degree all that is most recent and valuable in scholarship with so much literary accomplishment and artistic finish, and at the same time so careful an attention to the actual wants and requirements of the student. Nothing will be found in the book that ought not to be there, while the editors' assurance that they have turned to account all the latest labours of the best British and foreign scholars in the Horatian field will be found literally and strictly true. This remark applies as truly to the Life, Notes, Arguments, Index, and Excursus that have been drawn up by Mr Carmichael as to those parts of the work for which Dr Freund is immediately responsible. The idiomatic English and the fine literary finish of these portions of the book, even though we were not informed of the fact, are sufficient to mark them out as his, and it gives us a peculiar pleasure to draw attention to them, both for their intrinsic merits, and because they afford the best possible refutation of the out-cry about the decline of classical scholarship in Scotland, or at least in its metropolitan grammar-school. The man that can do these, can also do better things, and we should be happy that he were encouraged to continue those labours in the classical field for which he has already shown himself qualified in so uncommon a degree. A few more efforts of the same kind from him and the young scholars of Scotland, and Professor Blackie's occupation will be gone. The most popularly written and generally interesting portion of the work is perhaps the life, which gives one of the freshest and most faithful summaries in brief space, both of the poet's personnel and of his writings, that we have ever seen. Had our space allowed, we should have quoted some passages from it which we had marked for citation. We prefer, however, to devote the little room we have left to some of the more purely scientific parts of the book. We select almost at random the Excursus on Roman Satire, pp. 218-19-20, of which we have nothing to say further than that it may be taken as an average specimen of the writing in the book, though of course only in the same degree that a single brick serves as a sample of an entire house: "Satira, according to the ancient mode of spelling, satura (properly the femin. of the adj. satur, full, filled, satisfied), meant originally-with the substantive lana, a dish, either expressed or understood-a dish made up of all kinds of ingredients, and especially a kind of sausage. It was afterwards used as a law term, with the substantive lex, expressed or understood, and signified a law containing various clauses. Lastly, it was employed as the general term for a kind of poetry, which, in the most ancient times, resembled popular comedy or farce, but was afterwards elevated into moral composition of a humorous and sarcastic character. VOL. XXIII. N 66 According to Livy's account, dramatic satire, like the Fescennine comedy, originally consisted in humorous scenes, contrived for the occasion, without any regular plot or definite form, but differing from the Fescennine plays, in having an accompaniment of flutes and pantomimes. "After the better development of the legitimate drama, which had been introduced by Livius Andronicus, (about 514 A.U.C., 240 B.C.) the popular satires, which originated among the people themselves, generally formed the conclusions or interludes (exodia) of the Oscan farces (Atellanae Fabulae, Ludi Osci, or Ludicra Osca.) "The gradual advancement of Roman literature, and especially the influence exercised on it by the Grecian models, tended powerfully to improve the quality even of that Roman satire which was the natural product of the Roman mind. The arbitrary nature, both of its plan and style, was consequently somewhat modified. The poet Ennius seems to have been the first who followed certain distinct rules in his satiric composition, which may therefore be regarded as the connecting link between the oldest specimens of the art and those which were afterwards produced by Lucilius. "The second of the Roman satirists in order of time, C. Lucilius, was born at Suessa Aurunca, in Campania, 606 A.u.c. (148 B.C.) He belonged to an equestrian family, was the friend of the Scipios, and deeply versed in the literature of Greece and of his native country. He possessed, moreover, superior talent, and uniformly maintained a highly moral and independent character. To Roman satire he imparted an entirely new form and direction, and was therefore regarded as the creator and inventor of this species of poetry in its latter and permanent form. From low buffoonery, in the shape of a drama or dialogue, fitted merely for the amusement of the mob, satire now became the medium of stern reproof to all ranks of society, and did not spare even individuals occupying the highest stations, at a period when the Roman character was already losing much of the purity and dignity by which it had been distinguished in ancient times. The moral censure of Lucilius, however, is not bitter, but rather humorous and playful; the diction is easy and fluent, but the hexameters are sometimes so carelessly framed, that the style approaches more nearly the language of prose, or of ordinary conversation, than of poetry. "In this respect, the satire of Horace must be considered as a decided improvement on that both of Lucilius and his predecessors. Its form is far more elaborate; the cast of expression is infinitely more correct and sustained; while the subject-matter, like that of the Lucilian verse, consists of witty, humorous, patriotic, and indignant comments on the vices and weaknesses of the poet's countrymen. But now, of course, it was no longer the ancient republican virtue which was held up as the ideal of excellence, or the model for imitation. The author merely selects a few of his own contemporaries, whose moral defects he exposes, in their ridiculous, unnatural, and unbecoming character, not so much with the intention of inculcating the principles of moral truth and duty as of indulging his own humour, by the graphic delineation of prevailing absurdities and foibles. In the great variety of topics, in the vividness of portraiture, in the acuteness of the reasoning, in the animation, the exceeding elegance, and apparent artlessness of the style, and the easy flow of the versification, we discover the secret of that charm by which the Horatian satire have entranced the refined and thoughtful intelligence of all ages. In the perfect combination of these rare qualities, the satiric compositions of Horace not only surpass those of his predecessor Lucilius, and his followers Persius and Juvenal, but stand alone in the history of literature." ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE. "Grants in Aid."-Debate in the Presbytery of Edinburgh, 25th March 1857.-The question of "Grants in aid" of the Church of Scotland's schools in India, which it was thought had been set at rest for some time by the last General Assembly, was resuscitated at the last meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, under an Overture calling on the next Assembly to "re-consider the whole of the subject-to adhere to the deliverance of the General Assembly, 1855-and, finally, to pronounce a judgment in harmony with the views which the Church has always held on the subject of education generally, and in accordance with the principles on which alone our Missions in India can be conducted as an evangelical enterprize for the conversion of the heathen, and approve themselves to the prayerful sympathy and continued support of an enlightened Christian people." The debate in the Presbytery of Edinburgh was long and animated. The Overture was brought forward by Dr Macfarlane, late Convener of the India Mission, and supported by Dr Veitch, the author of "Reasons against affiliating our Christian Mission on the Secular System of Government Education in India," on which we felt it to be our duty to animadvert in terms far from commendatory, either as regarded its arguments in themselves, or the spirit in which they were set forth. The transmission of the Overture was opposed by Dr Bryce, who objected to it as unconstitutional, disrespectful, and rebellious in its language towards the last General Assembly, and calling on the Presbytery of Edinburgh to stultify itself by asking the next Assembly to reverse as "obnoxious in principle," "and fraught with evil to the propagation of the truth as it is in Jesus," the very deliverance which, not twelvemonths ago, they had themselves demanded and obtained from the last. The amendment was seconded by Dr Barclay in a very powerful speech, in which he adverted in language of the strongest kind to the "Reasons" of Dr Veitch, to which Dr Macfarlane had called the attention of the Presbytery, as embodying the arguments that ought to guide it to the support of his motion. The motion was supported by Dr Grant, Dr Muir, Dr Veitch, and others,—and on a division, was carried by 16 to 8.Dr Barclay entered a dissent, that, as stated, he may escape the censure which he had no doubt awaited the Presbytery, when such an audaciously disrespectful Overture went up to the Assembly. Dr Bryce joined the dissent, and craved leave to add a complaint to the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. This was opposed by Dr Grant, who urged that it was incompetent, and expressed his conviction that his friend would admit it to be so. Dr Bryce said he would rather follow the example set to him by Dr Grant in a late case, than his advice in this; but he would be satisfied should the Presbytery think his complaint incompetent, that it should be minuted that the leave to complain was refused. This was agreed to. The position in which the Indian Mission Scheme is now placed is not a little remarkable, and certainly not a little unfortunate. For many years after its establishment, it occupied the very foremost place among the great Christian Schemes of the Church; and contributions towards its support flowed into its treasury in liberal abundance. In looking into the returns of collections for last year, within at least the metropolitan Presbytery, it will be seen that the charge brought against it by anticipation in Dr Macfarlane's Overture, that it would cease to approve itself to the prayerful sympathy and continued support of an enlightened Church and people, has so far been made good. Nor perhaps looking at all that has lately occurred in its history is this to be much wondered at. It may not, therefore, be without its advantage, that we advert a little to the causes that could in one wealthy congregation, as that of St Stephen's, have converted an average collection of seventy or eighty, into one not exceeding the very moderate sum of seven or eight pounds. The attention of the General Assembly was first called to a Mission in India by a Memorial from the Rev. Dr Bryce and the Kirk-Session of St Andrew's Church, Calcutta, which will be found in the records of the Assembly, 1824-5. In this Memorial a plan of operations was set forth, for the erection of an Institution at Calcutta of a more pro |